I suppose it has been rather quiet recently, especially with the server going down for a while. But there are still a few of us here, and the server came back, so we're not going to just disappear again any time soon.

Here's a quick challenge while we wait for the new version of Rawbots to surface. The goal is simple: make it to the top of the ramp, complete the zero-G hairpin and safely get down again.

Easy mode: anything goes. Use jets for as much free propulsion and downforce as you want.Hard mode: no active downforce. Only use fins for downforce, so you have to keep going or you'll drift off into space.Extreme mode: none of the above. Show off some more exotic solutions to the problem.

There isn't really much point to this other that it looks cool. It's a 3 cylinder plasma cannon engine fitted with a propeller. Produces a kinda useful amount of power from 12 caps. The dream is to put an engine like this into a plane that can fly under its own power, which may be feasible with a double acting (two cannons per 'cylinder') design and more caps per cannon. For now it's just fun to crank it over by hand and watch it spin up to speed.

Operation/Controls:C/T- Trottle. Release set to 0. Controls capacitance, but the caps don't get a chance to fully charge so this doesn't have much effect.

I had a go at reworking the broadsides reversible drive & navigation system. The result is fast and doesn't get stuck, but unfortunately it's not really well suited to having a turret and armour fitted.

It is however fast enough that it nearly doesn't need armour, so it should still be useful as a target bot to test turrets against.

On an unrelated note, I'd forgotten how much code was in the turret of my original combat bot. It's probably not going to be fun trying to untangle and modify it to use the XFM inverse trig functions.

This has taken many, many attempts to get to a state that could be called working, which really is a testament to how well Trooks flapping glider worked back in the days of old rawbots. This flapping bot is capable of vertical takeoff and generating forward thrust. Each wing is split into a front and rear section, whose phase and amplitude can be controlled ta move the balance of lift forwards and backwards and provide forward thrust. When the wings are not flapping, the twisting lets them work as control surfaces to some extent, although the pitch ends up being inverted. It's actually quite realistic how the flapping can be cut in mid air and it will continue to glide before turning the flapping back on. The bot isn't especially polished, and the roll control is kinda tricky, but I thought people would like to see it.

Operation/Controls:G- Toggle flapping.H- Toggle deploy tail fin. Probably not a good idea.Y/I- Pitch.F/P- Roll.C/T- Adjust forward thrust. Release set to 0. Can usually be left set to full forward, and setting to reverse probably kills a lot of the lift.

This is a much more refined version of the original propeller plane. The structure is much stronger and more aerodynamically stable. The main landing gear is now retractable, and a steerable tail wheel has been added. Pitch control has been moved to the tailplane, and the main lifting surfaces can act as flaps, permitting low speed takeoffs. The two blade fixed pitch propeller currently fitted is fully capable of vertical and interplanetary flight and produces relatively little torque when up to speed. I also started to add a cannon, which is somewhat synchronised to the propeller, but needs some work.